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Contacting Petsmart Corp. about venomous spiders in crickets.

JordanAng420

JordanAng420

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Something happened when I was at Petsmart the other day and it pissed me off enough to want to contact corporate.

Basically, they've got black widow spiders just crawling around the egg cartons, IN the crickets-to-go boxes, IN and around the large bins of crickets.

I am 100% positive they are widows. This was confirmed by the doofus that manages that particular store...he said he wasn't too concerned about it because HE owns tarantulas. It's really not that big of a deal, he says.

Well it is to me. Venomous spiders are a very big deal to me, and have no business crawling around the store that I happen to be pawing through.

This is NOT this first time this has happened. In fact, it's the second or third. I've seen these spiders at this store before. It really creeps me out...to the point where I honestly don't even want to go to that store anymore. It compleatly turns me off, and that's a shame since I spend quite a bit of money there on dog food, cat food, ferret food and things of that sort as well.

So my question is, what would be the be heard about this situation? Other opinions? Thanks.
 
I guess I'm not too clear on your question...would you mind rephrasing it?
 
JordanAng420 said:
I am 100% positive they are widows. This was confirmed by the doofus that manages that particular store...he said he wasn't too concerned about it because HE owns tarantulas. It's really not that big of a deal, he says.
Click to expand...

And is "doofus" conformation all that reliable?

I agree with Harald that the question is confusing. What exactly are you asking? :shrug01:
 
I think they want to know how to contact corporate for Petsmart.... of even if they should

dunno
 
Southern Wolf said:
I think they want to know how to contact corporate for Petsmart.... of even if they should

dunno
Click to expand...

How, could have been achieved by a simple Google search.

Corporate Office

PetSmart, Inc.
Store Support Group
19601 North 27th Avenue
Phoenix, AZ 85027
(623) 580-6100
(800) 738-1385


If, would be kind of like pissing in the ocean, who would notice? I'm sure they get calls and mail all the time and I doubt much if anything gets done or changed. :(
 
DAND said:
I agree with Harald that the question is confusing. What exactly are you asking? :shrug01:
Click to expand...
I just looked at it again, and still didn't quite get it. The question, as posted, was: what would be the be heard about this situation?
It could go a couple of different ways, depending on what words are added or changed...but my guess is something along the lines of, What would be the best way to be heard. Sadly, I'm not sure there is one. Black widows are native to FL, and it isn't as if they can treat with insecticides to keep them away (remember, you're talking about the bug section - it would be a bad mix).
 
Heya Maia,
It's possible that the spiders came in with the crickets, so even going to Petsmart Corporate might not make much of a difference. If you can find out who their cricket supplier is, that might be the route to go. I'd still mention it to the manager (or his superior) of your local store though - they should pull the cricket-to-go boxes that have them in there and check that they don't go home with customers.

I know that we get spiders coming occasionally in with the crickets we order at the store where I work too (also sometimes beetles, caterpillars, etc). Luckily not black widows... although one time my co-worker swore that one was a brown recluse. We kill them when we find them and always check for spiders in the bag when counting crickets out for customers.
 
I apologize for the confusion. What I was trying to ask should have been worded something more like "In your opinion, does my concern with these spiders warrant further action or not?" With the majority of the responses I got, the impression i'm getting is no...

Thank you Janna for explaining further regarding the cricket shipements and that possibility...

Thanks also for everyone else's input.
 
Well, I can say I would be pissed if I got a bonus Widow in with my bag of crickets, or found one on a shelf in an area where I was putting my hands, too. That's a hazardous environment for customers, and I don't think their insurance covers customers being bitten by dangerous arachnids on store property. That's something they would have liability for, because they are responsible for keeping their premises safe for customers. Widows are native here in Nebraska, too--that doesn't mean I want to put my hand on one in a local store. They need to remove all of the dangerous spiders from their insect area, and from any area where they might come in contact with customers. Those spiders are dangerous enough to kill a small child.

Definitely contact corporate and mention the cavalier attitude of the store manager as well.
 
I believe Timberline keeps Petsmart in bugs. However, it also might be based on where they are in the country. I'd maybe casually ask a sales associate who their supplier is and call them. If there's a chance that the widow came from the store and not the cricket shipment, then ask for the district manager's contact info and go from there.
 
I highly doubt the crickets are infested with black widows. Widows are very secretive and living in conditions where there is constant movement and cleaning (i.e. at the cricket breeding supply source) is not conducive to them faring well let alone encouraging them to take up residence in a cricket bin.
 
Sue Henson said:
I believe Timberline keeps Petsmart in bugs. However, it also might be based on where they are in the country. I'd maybe casually ask a sales associate who their supplier is and call them. If there's a chance that the widow came from the store and not the cricket shipment, then ask for the district manager's contact info and go from there.
Click to expand...

Chances are the Widows come from the store location versus the location of the cricket company especially if they are located up North like I believe Timberline is. That and most cricket companies go out of their way to eliminate other bugs.
 
Thank you so much for everyones input. I did in fact contact the corporate office and I was told that it wasn't the first time it has been reported in Florida chain stores. I was also given a million gift certificates and a billion coupons to their store, along with several free samples of dog and cat food. My major concern was for my kids...what if they had been pawing through the shelves I spotted them on and they were bitten?

Again, thank you so much for everyone's wonderful information! :)
 
Well it's cool that they offered you some sort of compensation, but if the store still isn't doing anything about it, it's still a hazard. Maybe try to get in contact with a district or regional manager and inform them, and suggest possible solutions. "Sticky mats" could be placed around the bins, just to start with.

I understand they are local to Florida, but still, some sort of preventative measures could be taken to help protect their customers/source of income.
 
I have never heard about that sort of thing going on at my local PetSmart, but ours seems to be run better at our particular store than most I have heard about from other people. Ours has a lot of zoology majors that are knowledgeable running it, who really care about the animals and keeping it clean.

I will ask when I go in next. I usually buy crickets elsewhere, but I go there for other things.

One reason you might be encountering it in your store is because there were people complaining about PetSmarts using the sticky mats. Not only insect pests were getting stuck on them. Snakes, lizards, and furry little animals were too, and some had to have massive amounts of skin torn off to free them. Some pets were found in the dumpsters still alive, stuck to the mats!!:angry:

People have called for a ban on the sticky mats for this reason, though corporate was ignoring it the last I heard. Maybe your store was complying with those complaints. Just as people were calling for a ban on the place they were getting their animals from because they were being treated so badly and were even on the news with undercover footage.:eek: Last I heard, PetSmart was still going to deal with them if they promised to treat them better. (Yeah, right...I personally think the supplier needs to be prosecuted.)

I hope everything gets resolved.
 
Black widows are very common in the southeast. Adrian and David have the right of it. If black widows are in the store, it's because they've come in from outside. They're secretive and although venomous aren't aggressive. However, it is a liability to have such potentially dangerous animals around. It's a matter of cleanliness more than anything else, although the widows are probably keeping the escaped cricket population under control.

Are you sure these are black widows and not common house spiders? Here's a link to a bunch of nonvenomous common spiders.

http://www.spiderzrule.com/commonspidersusa.htm
 
For what it's worth, I talked to the manager of our PetSmart here in Kalamazoo, MI. She is very knowledgeable, having a zoology background, and we have had quite a rapport with her since we first started going there over two years ago. Our store is very clean and the staff is very knowledgeable and caring as well.

With that said, the manager said that sometimes they find wolf spiders in the cricket bin up in the corners feeding off the crickets that they dispose of right away. They will notice sometimes that they will have several small crickets in a bin and come back later to only find a few, look up into the corners of the bin, and find the harmless wolf spider there and they take care of it. They have NEVER found a brown recluse or black widow in the bin or in the store for that matter. They get their crickets from a local supplier either in MI or OH, so being that black widows are not native to this area, or to the area the crickets come from, they likely won't have that problem in the store or in with the crickets at all.

Just thought I would let you know that it must be a local problem for you. Sorry you have it.
 
Oh, and by the way, I see our local PetSmart staff CONSTANTLY cleaning in the store between customers, whether it's fish tanks, animal cages, cricket bins, floors, or shelf areas. I have heard that not all PetSmarts are alike, unfortunately.
 
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